Tips for Getting More Done

This topic might not be 100% focused on social media or marketing but its important to remember these ideals and incorporate them into your day. These tips will be especially helpful for bloggers, designers, social media managers and people with a lot on their plate each day to get more done.

Start Working Early

Starting on your work when you have a whole day ahead of you can be a huge psychological boost. You may find that you are less stressed when you give yourself lots of time to get your work done and have a brighter outlook on the day. Whereas starting later can leave you feeling out of time and behind on your work, leaving you frazzled.

Regardless of when you wake up and where you work, getting an early start will be helpful. If you work from an office you won’t have to worry about being late or traffic on the way in, and the pace is likely to be more relaxed where things could pick up later and get hectic. If you work at home, get up before the rest of the household and start the day with some uninterrupted work and time to yourself. For those people who live alone starting early will still give you an extra boost of productivity. Later on you will be able to wrap things up feeling good and without scrambling to finish your projects.

Manage Your To-Do List

Having a to-do list can definately help keep you organized, but when it grows from a cute little list of three or four items into a monster with 20+ things to grab your attention problems can arise. Try to keep focused on just a few tasks at once and organize your to-do list accordingly. You can seperate it into immediate and long term tasks and then further with major and minor ones. If your list starts to balloon don’t panic, just stay focused on completing the most important immediate tasks and then you can worry about moving on to a few more.

Manage Your Time

Now that your to-do list is under control you know what to do, but now the challenge is when to do it. Managing your time effectively is just as important as knowing what you need to do. Some times doing a few things at once works out

Your time can easily get out of hand

and is just necessary, but consider setting aside some time to give your attention to a single task for a while. Using blocks of time like this to work on your most important and immediate tasks can help you power through what needs to be done with great focus and speed. If waking up early leaves you behind still, time management like this can still get those important tasks completed on time.

Lay Out Your Plans for Specific Tasks

Organization is key. Knowing the steps you want to take before you even start a project will save you time and headaches down the line. Whether you write down the steps you plan to take for a large project or give a little bit of forethought to something smaller, effectively managing your projects is a prime example of how planning leads to success.

Don’t Get Distracted

Distractions are the bane of productivity, because they are by definition things that divide your attention, preventing you from focusing on your task. Working at a computer all day distractions are close at hand with just a few clicks. Games, recreational social media activities or interesting articles can all pull at your focus very easily if you let them. Especially when you’re using things like Twitter or Facebook for work you should be careful not to get sucked in. A good idea if you can is to set aside time for these possibly distracting activities, check your Twitter once each hour or twice a day depending on what your requirements are and then leave it alone otherwise.

Don’t Take on Too Much at Once

It is unlikely that at any given time you will have only one project on the go, and that is certainly a good thing, but make sure you don’t take on more than you can handle. Taking on fewer tasks and focusing more attention on them will enable you to work more effectively and efficiently. This will lead to projects being completed more quickly and maybe even with better results than if you had too much on your plate. You should still be able to keep working on the same volume of projects overall just completing individual jobs faster and then moving to the next. If you find your days are stressful and chaotic and productivity is suffering, take a look at how much you’ve taken on all at once and see how cutting back a little bit works for you.

Pomodoro!

Taking breaks can be just as important as working diligently. If you’re in the zone and flying through things keep it

POMODORO!!

up, but when your attention starts to wane or you hit a block try getting up and taking a short break. The Pomodoro System of taking breaks, named after a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato) , revolves around 25 minute work periods with 5 minute breaks in between them, followed by a longer break every 4 pomodoros. Taking time to get refreshed will let you get back to work with unparalleled zeal!

Avoid Clutter

Keep your workspace organized. Go through everything in and on your desk and decide if it has a place in your working area. If you work at home make sure you have an office space that you keep organized where you can go to do your work, seperate from the rest of your life if at all possible. Some things that you might not think about uncluttering are your computers desktop, bookmarks and email account, but these things can have a big effect on how you work, how you feel and give you that feeling of being more organized.

Have a Stopping Point

Having an end in sight can be very motivating when it comes to getting work done. When a task seems like it will just go on forever its very disheartening and can lead you to look for things to distract you. Keeping the end on the horizon helps keep you movitaved and on task but will keep you from working too long which can be unhealthy. If your schedule changes from day to day don’t worry about keeping your end time the same every day, just set aside enough time that you can comfortably complete what you need to do and plan your stopping point around that.

With a priority on work during work time and keeping a balance between intense focus and short breaks you will find that your efficiency rises dramatically and projects move much more smoothly. So enjoy your new found time and relax when you can.

About The Author:

George McConnell is the head writer for Traffikd.com and really likes social media! He is a full time internet entrepreneur and currently writing “That Social Media Book”, focusing on the history and effects of social media on internet and real world culture since its inception.

About George McConnell

George McConnell is the head writer for Traffikd.com and really likes social media! He is a full time internet entrepreneur and currently writing “That Social Media Book”, focusing on the history and effects of social media on internet and real world culture since its inception.

About Traffikd.com

Traffikd is an internet marketing and social media blog that aims to provide readers with practical, relevant information that they can use in their own online marketing efforts. The blog is updated regularly with new, original content.